Detailed schedule for SCIE300

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Wednesday, January 10

[Applies only to spring-only students]

Arrival in London. See the separate flight and arrival instructions for details.

Depart London Liverpool Street station by train at 11:30 AM, arriving in Norwich 1:27 PM. Taxi to UEA campus, check in at Thomas Paine Study Centre. Move in to accommodation at the UEA Village.

Optional: take bus 25 or 26 into town, get UK SIM card for your phone. Most phone stores will close at 6 PM today. The Chapelfield Mall has several phone stores to choose from.

Optional: pizza evening for UEA international students, in Crome Court, 7-10pm. See the UEA international students orientation program for details.

Thursday, January 11

[Applies only to spring-only students]

UEA international student orientation events: see program for details. Attendance at today's events is, in principle, required. However, attendance will not be checked or enforced so use your own judgment in determining which sessions to attend.

12:00pm-1:30pm: Lunch at Dickinson directors' residence (371 Unthank Rd., Norwich NR4 7QG). Take bus 25, get off at Coleman Hospital, walk back up Unthank Road. While visiting the residence, you can also pick up a selection of used kitchen items donated by previous students. Full-year students are welcome to join us for lunch also!

Required, if you have not done so already: obtain a UK SIM card for your phone, or alternatively make arrangements for your US cell phone to work. Notify the director of your phone number. The phone shops in Chapelfield Mall will be open until 8 PM this evening.

Friday, January 12

Optional UEA international student orientation events. See program for details.

Tuesday, January 16

Class session in room SCI 0.67. No required reading. Introduction and overview of the course.

Tuesday, January 23

Class session.

Required reading. McKay chapters 1 to 13 (pages 1-80).

Tuesday, January 30

Class session.

Required reading. McKay chapters 14 to 24 (pages 81-176).

Saturday, February 3

Excursion to Green Britain Centre in Swaffham. This will include a wind turbine tour and other activities. It is recommended to bring a packed lunch.

8:10 AM: meet at Norwich Bus Station, Stand B.

8:30 AM: board the X1 bus destined for Peterborough.

9:32 AM: arrive at Brocks Road stop in Swaffham. Walk to the Green Britain Centre.

10:00am-1:30pm: Activity programme, including Windmill Tour, Ecotrail, and lecture.

1:47 PM: depart Brocks Road stop on the X1 bus, arriving back at Norwich Bus Station 2:50 PM.

Tuesday, February 6

Class session.

Required reading. McKay chapters 25 to 32 (pages 177-250).

It is strongly recommended to meet with me this week or next week for a preliminary discussion of your SSP assignment. Please come to my office hours or make an appointment at another time to see me. If coming to my office hours, please email to confirm your intention.

Tuesday, February 27

Class session.

Required reading. Bostrom chapters 1 to 4 (pages 1-77).

Saturday, March 3

Excursion to Cambridge postponed due to winter storm conditions. Rescheduled to Saturday, May 5.

Tuesday, March 13

Class session.

Required reading:

Bostrom chapters 8 and 9 (pages 115-144).
Computing machinery and intelligence, A. M. Turing, Mind 59(236), October 1950. Please read the whole paper if possible, but you can focus on sections 1, 2, and 6.

Monday, March 19 to Sunday, March 25

Study trip excursion to Edinburgh. Please see the separate study trip schedule page for details.

We will be departing from Norwich train station on the 11:57 AM train on Monday, March 19, arriving Edinburgh Waverley station 5:18 PM.

The Dickinson program is providing each student with an off-peak open return train ticket. This means you may return to Norwich on any off-peak train of your choosing, beginning on Sunday, March 25. The return ticket is valid for one month from the start of our journey, so this gives you the opportunity to explore other parts of Scotland before returning if desired.

Tuesday, April 17

Class session.

Required reading:

Waterland (whole book, approx 350 pages)
Minds, brains, and programs, John Searle, The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3(3) 417-457, 1980.

Saturday, April 21

Excursion to Wicken Fen and Ely.

9:20 AM: Meet at Norwich train station. Depart on 0938 train for Ely, arrive 1038, and walk to Ely Cathedral.

11:45am: Tour of Ely Cathedral including the Octagon Tower. Lasts approximately one hour.

1:00PM: depart Ely Cathedral by taxi van for Wicken Fen. The exact departure point will be the parking bay just a little to the south of the Cathedral main entrance, on the road called The Gallery. Arrive Wicken Fen approximately 1:20 PM.

1:30PM: guided tour of Wicken Fen nature reserve (lasts about one hour).

2:45PM: depart Wicken Fen by taxi van, arriving back at Ely train station approximately 3:05 PM.

Return to Norwich on any train of your choice. Feel free to spend the rest of the afternoon exploring Ely or Cambridge. If returning directly to Norwich, you can probably get the 1521 train arriving Norwich 1615.

Tuesday, May 1

Class session.

Required reading:

Bostrom chapters 12 and 15 (pages 185-208 and 255-260)
Margaret Boden, "Escaping from the Chinese Room," in The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, ed M. A. Boden, Oxford University Press, 1990, pages 89-104. (This is actually an excerpt from Boden's 1988 book Computer Models of the Mind from Cambridge University Press, pages 238-251.)

Also useful, but not required: the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on The Chinese Room Argument, by David Cole.

Saturday, May 5

Excursion to Cambridge (rescheduled from March 3).

Meet at Norwich train station by 8:35 AM. Depart on 8:57 AM train, change at Ely (09:45), arrive Cambridge 10:08 AM.

10:45 AM: Meet outside Emmanuel College for 2-hour walking tour of Cambridge focusing on science, hosted by tour guide Mike Nott.

The remainder of the day is flexible. It is recommended that you visit a museum and/or participate in the punting trip as described below, but there are no formal requirements. Suggested activities:

Fitzwilliam Museum (fine art museum)
The Polar Museum at the Scott Polar Research Institute
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences (fossils, dinosaurs, etc.)
Optionally meet at 2pm at Scudamore's Quayside Punt Hire, Magdalene St, Cambridge CB5 8AB for a punting trip. Cost of punting will be met by the Dickinson program.

All of the museums above are free, open until 4 PM or 4:30 PM on Saturdays, and located within easy walking distance of the city center.

Optional afternoon event: meet at the Maypole at 3:30pm, where the Dickinson program will be happy to provide you with a beverage.

Remainder of the day: free time. Return on any train of your choosing. I will probably be on the 5:10 PM train, arriving back in Norwich at 6:30 PM.

Tuesday, May 15

Class session. No required reading.

Please bring a laptop or tablet suitable for completing the online course evaluation form.

Online course evaluation form.

Online program evaluation form.

I will give a brief presentation on the topic, “When did human-caused climate change become ‘settled science’? ”, referring to the following two publications:

Arrhenius, S. (1896). On the influence of carbonic acid in the air upon the temperature of the ground. The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 41(251), 237-276. Available as http://www.rsc.org/images/Arrhenius1896_tcm18-173546.pdf.
Charney, J. G., et al. (1979). Carbon dioxide and climate: a scientific assessment. National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC. Available from http://nap.edu/12181.